VIDEO: Kurdish Forces Open New Front against ISIS in Iraq’s Mosul

Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces continued to battle Islamic State (ISIS / Daesh / ISIL / IS) militants for a second day on Monday, as part of an offensive aimed at recapturing several villages east of Mosul.

A Kurdish commander said they had taken 12 villages from ISIS since Sunday as they drove about 20 kilometers (12 miles) into formerly militant-held territory in an attempt to push them away from the Khazer River, just west of the capital Irbil.

The steady drumbeat of heavy artillery could be heard much of the morning as peshmerga forces fought to wear down ISIS resistance in yet another village south of the Mosul-Irbil road.

Military engineers were constructing a new defensive line made of a trench and a berm.

Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, has been held by ISIS since 2014. It remains the last major urban stronghold of the terrorist group in Iraq.

The UN refugee agency said this week that more than 100,000 people had been displaced as Iraqi forces cleared territory ahead of the critical battle for Mosul.